Board Creates Data Centre for Financial Info

The Accounting & Audit Board of Ethiopia invested five million Birr in a new centre

The Accounting & Audit Board of Ethiopia (AABE) invested five million Birr to build a data centre that will store information on companies that report to the 12-member Board. The new data centre is located at AABE headquarters in Sidist Kilo, and its goals are to store and transfer information smoothly, according to Abebe Shiferaw, communications director for the Board.

The centre was developed by a local IT company, InteraCom IT Solutions, which was established in 2005 and engages in developing IT infrastructure. The company operates with 25 employees and has worked on data centres and network infrastructure for the Agricultural Transformation Agency, Addis Abeba University, Ambo Mineral Water S.C. and Ethiopian Insurance Corporation.

The project was launched in July 2018 and was expected to go fully operational after one month.

InteraCom, which operates with 25 employees, built the data centre at the headquarters of the AABE.

The new centre, which will store and distribute all the data on the internet, has three storage servers, each with storage capacities of 6.6 terabits of data. It has switches to connect users to the servers and storage. Distributors, an air conditioning system and uninterrupted power supply systems are all new features of the project.

A total of 18,000 companies including share companies, state-owned enterprises, private limited companies and small and micro enterprises report to the board, which was formed by a 2014 parliamentary legislation as part of a financial proclamation.

The board has been storing data and reports of companies in hard copies and in an old data centre located at the Ministry of Science & Innovation.

“Most of our rooms are filled with hard copies,” said Abebe. “The old data centre could not store the external files as it is only used for in-house purposes.”

Due to lack of data centre facilities, the board was also facing operational challenges on its website, according to Samuel Asrat, director of IT at the Board. The federal government has given the Board a mandate to transform the financial reporting system of the nation.

“Our website is not working properly as a result of lack of properly managed and functional data centres,” said Samuel.

Girum Terefe, operations manager at InteraCom IT Solution said the migration of data and document was challenging.

“We faced some network interruptions while migrating the data from the old network,” Girum told Fortune.

“The data centre will also help the people to register online and access the system virtually from anywhere,” Samuel said.

The board is also working to launch a digital library for students and researchers who need data on the financial sector. It will also add information on the website about the International Financial Reporting System.

Wubete Nigusse, an expert in computer applications and a lecturer at Kotebe Metropolitan University with a decade of experience, believes the board has made a good move in having the data centre but believes that it is a late action.

“Considering the responsibility of the board, which is finance, all the data to be stored at the Board needs to be accurate and neat,” Wubete said.